A local company is hiring ‘phantom workers’ to fill its required quota of local workers so that it can employ more foreign workers.
The ruse is purportedly executed by paying the mandatory $50 CPF to unemployed PRs to make it appeared that they are on the company’s payroll when they are not as highlighted by this advertisement on Lion City Forum:
When our reporter called up the company, it was answered by a PRC woman who promised monthly CPF payments so long she remains under the payroll of the company.
According to one HR manager who spoke to us on the condition of anonymity, such scams are common practices in Singapore.
“The companies will show MOM a record of the CPF payments made to its staff to prove that its manpower quota has been reached and therefore they are now eligible to employ more foreign workers while in reality, there are few Singapore citizens under their employment.”
While a few employers have been fined for hiring ‘phantom workers’, the problems appears to be endemic and the Manpower Ministry will have to do much more to discover and punish the culprits like the registered company above. Link
Related:
Only 4 companies convicted of hiring ‘phantom workers’ in the last two years - The Temasek Times
